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Lazarus Industries
Lazarus Industries is the first and largest company to specialise in mental scanning and uploading. Modelled after a life insurance company, in exchange for monthly payments one will be subjected to monthly mental scans, that in the case of sudden and unexpected death will be activated and uploaded into a relatively simple robot. Additional payments may be made to customise the robot, up to and including a virtually indistinguishable body, covered in silicon synthflesh. Henry Wilcox With the invention of the Lazarus Array in the 2050s, and subsequent cut and paste functionalities, immortality was effectively made possible, although before human testing could begin laws and regulations were passed, rendering the technology illegal to use, own or test. Despite the potential applications of the array, many considered the technology too dangerous to permit human testing on, with movies such as "Unity" and "Population: You" playing heavily on the public's mind. The Lazarus Array had its development frozen, despite the near-completion of the device. Henry Wilcox, an elderly billionaire from the United Kingdom had been campaigning for the restrictions on the technology to be lifted ever since they were put into place. Wilcox had been one of the chief financiers for the technology in the 50s, and his plan had been since youth to prolong his life through artificial means. Since the 2060s, Wilcox had been living inside a sterilised chamber specifically designed to keep the 130 year old alive. In 2093, after a stroke, Wilcox took drastic measures to preserve his life. He elected to illegally have his mind scanned with the untested prototype of the Lazarus device that was stored in his private museum, and uploaded to a robot of his own design, modelled after his 30 year old self (complete with silicon skin). Wilcox euthanized himself the following hour, publicly, on live television, via self immolation. He did not inform anyone of his plan, outside of a cryptic Grapevine post stating: "Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face." Over the next few weeks many outright considered the broadcast to be a hoax, or a prank. It wasn't until a robotic Wilcox began appearing on television talk shows to shed light on everything that had happened that people began to seriously consider the possibility that he'd survived, and the methods that he'd used to do so. The continued existence of Henry Wilcox, at least in terms of consciousness was a sudden and substantial debate for many scholars around the world. One school of thought argued that seeing as Wilcox was quite clearly and evidently conscious that he was still a living human being. The other quite simply claimed that as Wilcox had died, he was quite simply, dead. If this school of thought was adopted, Wilcox would be stripped of his human rights and his assets would be turned over to his heirs. One proponent of this school of thought was Wilcox's own son, Cave Wilcox. This manifested into a five year long court case, Wilcox v. Wilcox, that culminated in Henry Wilcox being granted full and permanent human rights, as well as granting any other humans undergoing the same experience full rights as well. It was Henry Wilcox's apparent good mental health and the resolution of Wilcox v. Wilcox that led to the gradual restrictions being loosened just enough to permit the Lazarus array to be used under a few specific conditions. One of these conditions was that only one version of a mind may be run at any given time. The punishment for this is severe, counted as a category 7 crime in most situations, although the relative ease at which multiple versions of a mind may be run simultaneously means that this law is often broken. As an example, in 2107 an illegal mercenary gang of robots was arrested, with interrogators and cyber-investigators discovering shortly afterwards that every single member of the group was an exact copy of the same consciousness. Every instance of consciousness was deleted. Lazarus Interviewer: So what do you miss most about being human, Mr. Wilcox? Wilcox: Being human? Hah! Barely anything. I mean...I suppose I miss fresh air on my face...The smell of freshly cut grass...The ability to sleep, as opposed to being constantly kept awake and aware...To be able to close my eyes, to be able to be cut off from the world as opposed to seeing everything, everything at once. To be able to breathe, to feel my chest inflate as opposed to this hollow cavity filled with wires and binary and- and- this...metal...Shit!...The taste of coffee. The little things, you know? Category:Corporations